Abstract

In Robinson Crusoe's reprints and in the robinsonnades, engravings disclose a history of the novel's reception, as well as fundamental evolutions which are both cultural and political. Through the reprints, images present Robinson's multiple facets as a sailor, a colonizer, an inventor, or a man belonging to the Enlightenment. But at the end of the 19th century, Robinson embodies the Western world's good — and bad — conscience.